COMMENTARY

For years, CRNAs have talked about being the "Best Kept Secret in Healthcare." Because we don't want to be a secret, we've spent lots of effort trying to educate the public about ourselves.

I suggest that we'd be better off educating physicians about who we are and what our abilities are; especially surgeons and those who perform procedures. Here's why ...

A gastroenterology group just recently did a study to determine whether or not CRNAs could safely "sedate" patients for endoscopies without supervision by an anesthesiologist. (Click here to see info on the study.) REALLY? THAT WAS A QUESTION? Well, yes, apparently in the mind of the gastroenterologists, it was. They concluded that CRNAs could safely sedate their patients with propofol and that it might be more cost effective to have CRNAs sedate endoscopy patients without supervision by anesthesiologists. And THAT is why we should be educating physicians about ourselves before worrying so much about what the public knows about us.